Canadian society — including employers and researchers — often underestimate autistic people, treating their condition only as a “devastating disorder,” instead of focusing on their strengths and sometimes superior abilities, one expert says.

Laurent Mottron, a University of Montreal psychiatry professor, says that if the scientific community acknowledged the benefits of the autism rather than focusing solely on the negative aspects of the condition, they’d recognize that autistic people could be ideal workers in the fields of scientific research and academia.

Compared to their non-autistic counterparts, people with the condition are better at processing large amounts of data, less likely to remember information incorrectly and are better at spotting recurrent patterns in large pieces of information, Mottron wrote in a commentary published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

“Recent data and my own personal experience suggest it’s time to start thinking of autism as an advantage in some spheres, not a cross to bear,” said Mottron, who has studied autism for about two decades. His article accompanied a series of stories tackling issues surrounding the condition.

He said autistic people are a marginalized segment of society, who are often left working menial jobs when they are capable of contributing much more, he said.

Autism is a developmental disorder that typically manifests itself during the first three years of a person’s life, affecting the brain’s normal development of social and communication skills. It takes a variety of forms and the degrees of intensity of certain behaviours vary in each child affected.

There are about 200,000 Canadians with Autism Spectrum Disorder, and it is estimated that one in every 165 children is born with the condition, according to the Autism Society of Canada.

One in 10 autistics cannot speak, nine out of 10 have no regular job and four out of five autistic adults are still dependent on their parents, Mottron noted.

While he concedes that people with autism face challenges, he says his professional experience collaborating with autistic people in his lab has convinced him that those with the condition are well suited for careers in research and academic science.

“From a young age, they may be interested in information and structures, such as numbers, letters, mechanisms and geometric patterns — the basis of scientific thinking,” Mottron said, pointing to his four research assistants, three students and one researcher, all of whom are autistic.

His colleague, Michelle Dawson, inspired him, Mottron says, and helped him reconsider common assumptions about autism.

Dawson, who doesn’t have a scientific degree, absorbs information quickly, reads thoroughly and was able to edit Mottron’s work, offering “exceptional” feedback on his research, he said. The pair have co-authored 13 papers and several book chapters.

Research has consistently shown that autistics outperform others in tests on hearing, such as discriminating sound pitches, and imagining — conceptualizing and contorting — complex shapes in their minds.

Their unwavering focus can help them become self-taught experts in academic disciplines, making them worthy candidates for roles that require precision, overspecialization and accuracy over speed, Mottron said.

He cited intensive research, testing software and machines, and looking out for defects as examples where autistic people would excel.

Mottron said that despite these findings, autistics’ superiorities are not part of the criteria doctors use to diagnose the condition.

Instead, autism is linked to language impairment, reduced interpersonal skills, repetitive behaviours and limited interests.

“Most educational programs for toddlers aim to suppress autistic behaviours, and to make children follow a typical development trajectory. None is grounded in the unique ways autistics learn,” Mottron wrote.

Canadian employers should be obliged to hire autistic people more while autistic people should emphasize their strengths or work with a mediator who can help them with employment opportunities, he said.

In the United States, and in Denmark, private initiatives are already in place to connect autistic people with meaningful work.

A Danish company, Specialisterne, for example, has helped more than 170 autistic people obtain jobs since 2004.

Its parent company, the Specialist People Foundation, aims to connect one million people with jobs around the world.